Spoke to a farmer who's lived in SE Washington his whole life. Said he's never seen so few deer and so many cougars. Said that he's seen 10 cats this fall. He thinks the WDFW is telling us there's less cats and plenty of deer, but thinks they're telling a backwards story. He was also saying that the wolves in the Blues are most likely impacting deer herds there. And, in terms of pheasants - he's shocked at how few there are left.
Heard that the cats are taking a lot of deer out where we hunted near Davenport as well. Got invited back to the 3+ square miles of private land later this winter.
We saw only one small WT buck during daylight and about two dozen other does, mostly mulies, in three days of covering a lot of ground. I have not hunted this before so cannot speak to any trends other than what the locals told me.
In the wheat fields of SE wa it was the worst season my deer camp has ever seen. First time ever not only did no one tag a deer, but not a single buck was even seen. Average 15+ bucks seen on opening day.
Also hit the San Juan’s and it was the worst I had ever seen. Tons of predator scat, and saw about 1/12 the number of deer and deer sign.
Rough year, glad I was able to get a tag punched early.
What kind of predator scat do you see on San Juan? The only thing that eats deer there are Eagles, people, and car bumpers. No coyotes on the island only foxes.
I was wondering the same thing. I've heard some coyotes have been seen on Cypress, but it is technically not one of the San Juans.
